Friday, March 11, 2016

On whom the Belle tolls.

Three times this past week, Belle has escaped the pen. Each time, I've checked to see if she has a new bolt-hole under the fence or a spot were the fence is down sufficient for her to pull it down and get over it. And I've found nothing--no clues as to how she's been getting out.

Well I just caught her in the act, and now I know how she's doing it. This time, instead of going under or pulling herself over, she found a spot where she could push the top out until that section of fence is on about a sixty degree angle leaning outward. Then she's climbing up that incline, using her claws to grip the fencing like a cat. I've never seen anything like it from a dog.

Damned dog. She's the reason that the new house has a six-foot solid wood fence.

Good luck. We have an escape artist dog that can climb straight up a 5 foot chainlink, and isn't fazed by electric fences. She's some kind of mutt, but definitely part Shepherd and part coyote, and all brains. It's a good thing she's adopted our daughter and designated herself as that toddler's personal protection.

Back in the last century we had a Dalmatian that hated to be contained. When the 6 feet of welded wire fence did not stop him climbing out, we topped it with 3 more feet of chicken wire he could not get purchase on. Found that using his poo to fill the dig-outs worked relatively well but eventually went concrete. Finally he would THROUGH the fence wire, breaking it, until he could push his head through. Once he succeeded he would happily come sit on the back porch a scarred and bloody mess. The only times I saw him bloodier, he had caught muskrats, only then, the blood was not his own.